Armstrong's anti-establishment shtick has lost some of its impact. [Jun 2009, p.102]

It's a fine bookend for a man who defined one parochial corner of the music world. [Mar 2011, p.96]

This is not an uplifting listen. [Apr 2014, p.91]

While the guitarist's chops are impeccable and his tone as fiery as ever, the stiff, unyielding charts tend to stifle him, hindering his spontaneity and that of his fellow fine musicians. [Jun 2020, p.95]

Sung tentatively, a la Randy Newman. [Jun 2014, p.98]

Her sinuous, Lady Dayish voice sets her apart. Unfortunately, it's not to be heard in full effect until about a third of the way through Mama's Gun... [Jan 2001, p.104]

Hall explores his anger and depression through mostly downbeat but frequently beautiful ballads. [Feb 2022, p.87]

Many of these 12 songs, eight of them originals, tend towards the reflective. [Jan 2021, p.90]

As with previous Immersion material, analogue synthesizers provide the musical focus here, sporadically infused with electric guitars, often played in the oblique, angular style that Wire Fans will instantly cleave to. [Feb 2017, p.98]

Jones actually one-ups the Ventures with a frenetic version of White Christmas you can do the swim to. [Jan 2016, p.88]

It's a beautiful warm bath of a record, but a soporific one too, better suited for wallowing within, rather than getting you moving. [May 2020, p.90]

This brittle, torrid world has little light and shade. [Apr 2015, p.89]

Mostly she's clever, soulful, sexy, and only a gram of venturesomeness short of her early best. [Apr 2014, p.90]

A tad more conventional than Liz Harris's ongoing work as Grouper, despite roots in C86 shambling and early-90s shoegaze, Helen's hazy, half-grasped songs are still several left turns from any standard indie fare. [Dec 2015, p.86]

There are tidings aplenty, but little comfort and even less joy. [Feb 2017, p.97]

For the most part, this is soothing, circular psychedelia with added depth, warmth and texture. [Feb 2018, p.93]

Before long, these initially detached settings establish a magnetic, narcotic allure, filled with elliptical hooks and images. [Feb 2018, p.97]

He keeps the core of material such as The Nearness Of You and My Blue Heaven spare and the tone intimate. [Mar 2020, p.94]

'Mother May I?' and AdRock's 'Oooh Girl' are the most engaging and enetertaining of a solid selection. [Oct 2007, p.106]

Suggests a majestic, exquisitely desolate mix of Isis and My Bloody Valentine.[Aug. 2011, p. 106]

It's lots of fun, a whirlwind romp through grubby rock landmarks. [May 2012, p.84]

Guest appearances from the venerated likes of Percee P and M.E.D. and Mr Lif & Edan prove these Brothers' breakbeats more than pass muster. But it's the more adventurous instrumentals that impress most. [Mar 2010, p.92]

Barfly is pithy, punky pop and some of it really shifts. [Jan 2012, p.98]

La Havas sets herself apart from the coffee shop set with a rough-hewn edge. [Aug 2012, p.92]

Reliably familiar punk pop by enduring Japanese trio. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]

Aloe Blacc swaggers with a charming insouciance on C'est Bon, which is an accurate description of Red Lips itself. [Jan 2017, p.94]

Side two, however, veers into arch Euro-pop (I Don't Have Control Sometimes) and moody balladry (Stand By Me), and Sunflower Bean's new-found confection begins to set one's teeth on edge. [Jun 2022, p.87]

This new album is as quixotic and wilfully idiosyncratic as his previous oeuvre. [Jan 2016, p.88]

The touchstones - Julee Cruise, Kate Bush, The Blue Nile - are more classic than experimental but the heartbreaking emotions remain utterly real. [Jun 2026, p.88]

These "little" songs have the feel of home-studio genesis, thanks to pitter-pattering drum machines, the unflashy layering of instruments, and the author's intimate lyrical reflections. [Feb 2016, p.94]

The sound's good and getting better - a wig-out of surf rock, Stooges-style punk and hardcore thrash, with the occasional Bambi noise of 1960's folk peeping round a tree. [Aug. 2011, p. 106]

Cupid Deluxe is wildly eclectic and nostalgic. [Jan 2014, p.97]

Politically astute, philosophical and profound, Ty's comeback is a tad too long, but only because he cares. [Apr 2018, p.92]

Their ongoing Heavy Rocks series plays things relatively straight, however, restricting their palette to metallic tones. Even so, this third volume rewrites the rulebook. An opening brace of tunes gallop like vintage Motorhead, if they were being chased by wild banshee saxophones. [Oct 2022, p.90]

Just as you're thinking "so far, so generic," they wrong-foot you, as their debut album starts to incorporate seemingly random elements of knock-kneed white reggae, snotty hardcore punk and snatched bar conversations. [Mar 2014, p.94]

A career-builder, if not a game-changer. [Jun 2019, p.89]

Faun Fables do gothic folk with admirable vigour and this is incontrovertible force of nature. [Jan 2011, p.104]

With four tracks topping 12 miutes, it's essentially a celebration of pre-punk boffin-rock, 'The Best Of Times 'and 'The Count Of Tuscany' both prog-metal masterpieces worthy of imperial-phase Rush. [Jul 2009,p.95]

The wrong kind of sonic adventure undermines about half the songs. A drop of Waitsian, drunken, junkyard percussion might have been just the ticket, but the plethora of drony guitar and keyboard distortions proves distracting, rather than "atmospheric", and impairs the effect of some strong songs including Back To Manhattan and Stuck. [Dec 2009, p. 88]

Despite berry's background in comedy there's definitely more of an air of homage than pastiche to this deliciously chilled album. [Jun 2014, p.90]

Contrasting extremes on emotionally literate, indie rock evocations. [Mar 2022, p.90]

Jaguwar don't reinvent the wheel, but their propulsive guitar rock intricacies bring all the right deep-sonic thrills. [Feb 2018, p.99]

He also works hard to bring variety within the gargantuan two-and-a-half-hour running time with an all-star guest list. [Jan 2016, p.89]

The whole thing is deeply marketable--but there's an authenticity in Rogers that needs more space to breathe. [Feb 2019, p.92]

The current group are concentrated, powerful, more subtle than in recent times but can sound a bit tidy and foursquare. [Apr 2015, p.96]

Only a slight dearth of killer melodies ... disappoints. [Apr 2012, p.86]

There is no doubt that Ditto can command the attention, but these songs don't quite sweeten the deal enough. [Jul 2017, p.89]

Hauff gives you the feeling that there's something very wrong, and leaves you to make up your own nasty stories. [Oct 2015, p.96]

It's great credit to both Lund and his versatile backing bad, The Hurtin' Albertans, that such see-sawing through genres can sound so much like a singular piece of work. [Dec 2015, p.93]

If the phosphorus-hot psychedelia of their first Hexadic record was too much for some ears, this subtly chance-infused union of magick and method should prove more inviting. [Jan 2016, p.90]

A coffee table record. [Jun 2007, p.114]

Intended as a chilly-pastoral instrumental cycle for piano, three cellos and string quartet, but Los Angles sound designer Jennifer Pague pitched lyrics for four tracks and a more personal narrative took shape, evoking solitude and morbidity. [Jun 2020, p. 93]

Alice still makes Marilyn Manson sound like Mickey Mouse. {Sep 2008, p.112]

It's quite a departure from their trademark psychedelia. [Apr 2015, p.98]

Three or four candidates for an updated greatest hits package is not a bad hit rate. [Apr 2012, p.94]

Close To The Glass is full of charming, understated yearning. [Apr 2014, p.94]

Although the listener doesn't expect dynamics in this kind of music, there is little variation in either its colour and timbre. [Aug 2020, p.89]

The musical density doesn't quite complement the elegiac lyrical flow, and a change of pace might have meant another way forward, but there's tenderness to spare. [Feb 2022, p.90]

Best savoured as a whole, a magical mystery of Pollard's pop-obsessed, haphazardly-filed subconscious. [Feb 2006, p.107]

Sex Change continues their move away from arena bombast towards streamlined Euro grooves. [Mar 2007, p.103]

This trick of balancing heavy and light serves Mercury well. [Jul 2022, p.88]

It lacks the gargantuan personality and all-encompassing throaty bark of FU's leader Damian Abraham to give it a USP, but Falco, as frontman, does a decent job of stamping his own marker. [Jul 2020, p.84]

The singer's second solo album is far removed from VR's ass-kicking hard rock. [Feb 2009, p.108]

At it's best, II packs a winning, sun-scorched lethargy. [Jun 2017, p.88]

Occasionally overwrought but never dull. [Sep 2017, p.96]

The Amazing Snakeheads have delivered an album bristling with unapologetic rock'n'roll invective. [Jun 2014, p.91]

Gentle, Andrew Bird-style ballads bump alongside histrionic prog pop and four-to-the-floor beats on Ritalin-phased second LP. [Jun 2014, p.98]

If you're mad enough to be planning a Breaking Bad-themed barbecue you've just found the perfect soundtrack. [Sep 2016, p.90]

Don't head here for untrammelled novelty, but Idlewild is a record worthy of the name. [Nov 2025, p.89]

Blood proves to be another mixed bag. [Aug 2015, p.92]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Manuel Menuck and Mat Ball of Big Brave joined guitar forces to make music that stood up to the Montreal cold. The heat generated by the band (completed by Jonathan Downs and Patch One of Maine post-rockers Ada) isn’t entirely the kind you huddle around for comfort, though. [Nov 2024, p.87]

This radiantly executed effort is also, curiously, Childish Gambino's most anonymous. [Feb 2017, p.92]]

Fate Of The faithful is ostensibly No Quarter, Meeting The Master is Thank You, and The Falling Sky cribs a Robert Plant-style harp solo so perfectly that GVF can likely taste his spit. Be in no doubt, however, that frontman Josh Kiszka's Olympian wail can part the waves of cynicism and make the scales fall from your eyes. [Sep 2023, p.88]

While reining in the triumphalism, Demonstration suffers from an overbearing sense of its own importance. [Jan 2014, p.97]

The live album of the film of his 2014 Scottish road trip reveals Moffat's irreverent take on his nation's folk songs. [May 2016, p.96]

More coherent than some rejigged castoffs ought to be. [Oct 2022, p.84]

Heartbreaker Please expresses its title in the most literal terms; it's broken and pleading. At the same time, the music provides a through-line to the 43-year-old's singer's past, striking his usual balance between Buddy Holly simplicity and Roy Orbison sweep, with a dash of Memphis horns tossed in. [Jun 2020, p.89]

While it's sometimes hard to shake the feeling one is listening to the soundtrack to some twee mobile commercial, it's harder still to deny the seductive charms of tracks like the twilit Ilsa Drown, the haunting Triangulated Heart, and the album's deftly magical closing song, Loom. [Mar 2014, p.94]

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have knuckled down alongside relative newbies Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer to make a half-decent rock'n'roll record. [Nov 2009, p.90]

An intriguing partnership that fails to entirely live up to expectations. [May 2012, p.86]

For all his sour wit, however, Zevon remians a musical craftsman who's happy to leave the lyrics to others. [July 2002, p.102]

Two distinct personalities: Death LP (dark and groovy) and the titular short film soundtrack (disjointed and upsetting). [Aug 2017, p.96]

Imaginative, derivative and warped. [Nov 2016, p.93]

Against the odds Placebo are growing old gracefully. [Sep 2013, p.89]

It's exquisitely crafted and the backing vocals on North Country Ride are beyond beautiful, but a little more colour in their palette wouldn't go amiss. [Aug 2023, p.78]

This is a pure genre exercise but done well. [Feb 2017, p.92]

The hazy white noise loops of 2008's Black Sea stripped out in favour of choral drones and soothing gamelan chimes, perfectly suited to the film's meditative, valedictory tone. [Sep 2012, p.95]

This retreat to classical roots is soothing, if a little one-note. [Jul 2020, p.88]

Moodily modish but emotionally intriguing, Arthur Beatrice inhabit a stylish grey area. [Mar 2014, p.92]

While It's Not Me, It's You isn't quite the voice of wisdom, the Mockney chatter has been dialed right down. [Mar 2009, p.108]

This collection of rarities includes songs from their "mystery year" of 1998, an MOR cover oof Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart and on, Turn Up The Radio, a song written as a YouTube collaboration with fans, yet is still stronger than most albums in the current mainstream pop/punk realm. [Jan 2011, p.110]

They sound more and more as if they've found a sound that they can all their own. [Apr 2012, p.94]

Braxton ventures far from the strictures of traditional rock. Indeed, he's cleared passport control and stepped into the realms of modern classical music. [Oct 2009, p.103]

Bonkers idea. ... Stranger still, the whole thing works a treat. [Nov 2021, p.87]

First Aid Kit's debut sounds like a signifier of greater things to come. [Mar 2010, p.90]

The result is a dreamlike state of unease and wonder, in which you don't know where you are, or what's coming next. [Aug 2018, p.94]

An endearingly petulant collection of nasty hardcore guitar tunes.

The 12 songs are dilatant, vibrant. [Oct 2016, p.93]